Pipeline mapping and interrupter therefor

ABSTRACT

Cathodic protection voltages are used to resist the damage to pipes or cables from electrolytic effects. However, localized fields can lead to stray currents and may result in corrosion and it is therefore desirable to detect and analyse those stray currents. Frequently there are several pipes in the area of interest and so it is necessary to distinguish between those pipes. Therefore the cathodic voltage on the pipes is modulated, with different pipes having different modulations. This modulation may be applied using an interrupter. Orthogonal modulations with non-unitary aspect ratios improve the discrimination between the pipes while maximizing the energy content of the modulation pattern. The analysis is improved when the interrupters are synchronized with each other and so repeating on the same time-base. This synchronization may be achieved using an external time signal such as GPS. An interrupter which can be used in this regard is also proposed, and may be powered from the cathodic voltage itself.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to and is a division of U.S. patentapplication entitled, PIPELINE MAPPING AND INTERRUPTER THEREFOR, filedMar. 23, 2001, having Ser. No. 09/815,911, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,617,855,which claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 60/203,384,filed May 11, 2000, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the mapping of an underground cable orpipe. It also relate to an interrupter for interrupting the cathodicprotection voltage applied to such an underground cable or pipe.

It is well known to apply a cathodic (negative) voltage to anunderground cable or pipe (hereinafter “pipe”) to reduce corrosion ofthat pipe. If the pipe is at a positive voltage relative to ground,electrolytic effects occur which damage the pipe. It should be notedthat such cathodic protection voltage may be applied even when the pipeis coated to insulate it from the ground, because it is common for thatinsulation to develop holes or other faults which could result inlocalised damage.

However, it is also common for such pipes to experience electricalfields due to other objects such as adjacent pipes, or other electricalconductors such as railway lines, etc. Such localised fields sometimesresult in the pipe experiencing a positive voltage relative to ground,so that corrosion occurs. It is therefore desirable to investigatecurrents in the pipe or cable to detect points where corrosion mayoccur. If stray currents are detected, these may be due to electricfields from other objects (such currents hereinafter being referred toas stray currents), appropriate action can be taken, such as repairingthe fault or taking corrective action elsewhere by suitable voltagecontrol, or even by providing sacrificial anodes at an adjacent fault.

In order to detect the stray currents, it is possible to make use of themagnetic fields generated by those currents, and detect those fieldsremotely from the pipe itself, such as at the surface. Detection of suchmagnetic fields is generally known, although special techniques may beneeded because of the low magnitude of the currents.

There is also the problem that there may be several pipes in the areabeing investigated, and the currents from those other pipes may confusethe measurement.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is preferable that the cathodic protection voltage ismodulated to enable the currents generated thereby to be more easilyrecognised by remote detectors. At its simplest, the modulation could beapplied by a relay controlled switch connected between the pipe and thevoltage source which supplies the cathodic protection voltage. However,the present invention, in its several aspects, seeks to develop straycurrent mapping arrangements, and also to provide an interrupter forapplying a modulation to the cathodic protection voltage, and hence tothe stray currents, and to improve the investigation of those straycurrents.

Before discussing these aspects of the invention, however, it needs tobe borne in mind that one source of stray currents is due to thecathodic protection voltage applied to other pipes which pass adjacentor across the pipe being investigated. Stray currents on the pipe beinginvestigated may thus have multiple components, particularly when thereare a large number of pipes adjacent each other.

Thus, a first aspect of the present invention proposes that the cathodicprotection voltage of the pipe being investigated is modulated with afirst modulation signal, and the cathodic protection voltage of a secondpipe which passes adjacent the first pipe is modulated with a secondmodulation signal. Then, the stray currents on the pipe beinginvestigated are analysed on the basis of the different modulationsignals applied to the two pipes. If the stray currents are analysed atthe first modulation, those current components due to the pipe itself,or due to other perturbations such as electric railways are determined.Then, if the stray currents are investigated at the second modulation,ie the modulation applied to another pipe, the effect of the linkingbetween that other pipe and the pipe being investigated can bedetermined. This process can be repeated for multiple pipes bymodulating with a distinct signal for each pipe.

Where the cathodic protection voltage of two pipes is to be modulated,whether it be the same modulation signal or with different modulationsignals as in the first aspect, separate interrupters will be fitted toeach pipe, and although the interrupters may be driven by oscillatorshaving the same nominal frequency, manufacturing tolerances etc meanthat synchronisation cannot be reliably achieved. Therefore, theinterrupters need an additional system to provide synchronisation. Thesynchronisation represents a second aspect of the present invention.

Synchronisation could be achieved by directly connecting the twointerrupters, so that the clock signal of one can be used as a referenceagainst which the other is synchronised. However, in many situations, itis not practical for the interrupters connected to different pipesthemselves to be connected. The pipes may only pass adjacent each otherat a particular point along their length, and if the interrupters cannotbe connected at that point, physical interconnection is problematic.Therefore, in a third aspect of the invention, synchronisation makes useof an arbitrary pre-set time for all interrupters. When any individualinterrupter starts to operate, after it has stopped operating for sometime, it determines the time interval between that pre-set time and thetime of start of operation, and the interrupter signal (which ismodulated by an appropriate modulation signal), is commenced at thepoint in the signal which corresponds to that which the signal would beif the signal had commenced at the pre-set time. In this way, theinterrupters are synchronised as if any operating interrupter hadstarted at the pre-set time, irrespective of the time which has pastsince that pre-set time.

In order for this operation to occur, the interrupter needs to determinethe time between the pre-set time and the time at which the interrupterstarts operation. If an absolute reference clock was available for eachinterrupter, that reference clock could be used. However, it is notnormally economic to provide such accurate time measurement within aninterrupter. Therefore, it is preferable that the interrupters make useof an external signal. If an external time signal is available (such asthe Rugby signal in the UK), then that could be used. A furtheralternative is to make use of the Global Positioning System (GPS).Whilst those signals are primarily to provide positional information,they also provide a synchronised clock signal from which theinterrupters can determine the time between the pre-set time and thetime of starting the interrupter, and so can determine at which point inthe interrupter signal the operation is to start.

To put this aspect another way; if all interrupters operatedcontinually, synchronisation would be achieved by starting them all atthe same time (the pre-set time). However, since the interrupters are tobe turned on and off, a calculation is made whenever they are turned onto determine the point in the cycle they would have reached if theyalways had been turned on (from the pre-set time referred to above), andthe signal is started at the appropriate time in the cycle correspondingto that which would have occurred if the interrupter had been on all thetime.

Another aspect, which applies to the modulation of any single pipe, aswell as modulations applied to multiple pipe as discussed above, is thatthe modulation is preferably an irregular modulation, rather than simpleregular square-wave modulation. This makes the stray currents beinginvestigated easier to distinguish from other currents in the vicinityof the pipe being investigated.

Since the currents on one pipe may be due not only to the modulationapplied to that pipe, but also to the modulation applied to other pipes,it is important that the resulting field generated by the combinationsof those modulations must be such that the individual modulations shouldbe separately identifiable. It is possible to do this by modulating atdifferent frequencies, but this has high power requirements. Therefore,in a further aspect of the present invention, it is proposed that thedifferent pipes are modulated with signals which are a sequence ofbinary levels defining a bit pattern, with the bit pattern of eachsignal being orthogonal to all other patterns. Use of this aspect meansthat the presence of one pattern, and hence one signal, can accuratelybe determined and measured even in the presence of any or all of theother patterns and hence all other signals.

Orthogonality can be expressed mathematically as: S1(t).S2(t)=0 where S1and S2 are the signal waveforms, represented as functions of time. Theintegral is taken over a period of time equal to the repeat period ofthe waveforms. If the equation holds true then the two signals S1(t) andS2(t) are orthogonal, provided neither signal is trivial, i.e. S1 ²(t) 0and S2 ²(t) 0

Thus, this use of orthogonal signals represents a fourth aspect of theinvention.

Even when the pipes are carrying orthogonal signals, erroneous resultsmay be obtained if measurements are carried out in a location where twopipes are closely adjacent, since the signal in one pipe may couple tothe other. When measurements are carried out remotely which seek tomeasure the modulation on one of those pipes, the same modulation mayappear on the other pipe due to coupling, and therefore the magneticfield being measured will represent the sum of the fields from those twofields. Therefore, it is necessary to separate them.

To do this, it is proposed that one of the pipes be isolated and signalsapplied to it to determine its position. Then, after returning it to thenon-isolated state, the net signals from the two pipes are investigated.Since the location of one of the pipes is known, it is then possible todetermine the location of the other by subtracting the fields that wouldbe generated by the pipe at the known location, and then analysing theresultant fields which then represent the second pipe. This subtractionprocess represents a fifth aspect of the invention.

Normally, in order to make for the use of the present invention, theinterrupter includes a switch in the form of a solid-state device ratherthan a relay-controlled switch. It has been appreciated that it is thenpossible to make use of the cathodic protection voltage to providepower, instead of, or as a supplement to battery power. This representsa sixth aspect of the invention. In the sixth aspect, the interrupterhas power storage (eg a capacitor) connected between the cathodicprotection supply and ground. In the normal state, where the interrupteris not interrupting the cathodic protection voltage, a voltage ispresent across the power storage means which thus stores power which canbe used to operate the interrupter when the interrupter is to function.

Indeed, this sixth aspect of the invention is not limited to thepowering of an interrupter. Any suitable device connected to the pipemay thus be powered by the cathodic protection voltage.

As has been mentioned previously, the stray currents usually have smallmagnitudes, and therefore it is desirable to be able to detect thosesmall currents remotely. To detect those currents, the detectorapparatus disclosed in WO98/54601 may be used in which a plurality ofsensors are provided, normally in a horizontally-extending array. Then,comparison of the sensor outputs enables the position of the pipe to bedetermined accurately. The sensors detect the magnetic fields generatedby the currents, and the arrangements described in WO98/54601 permitdetection even at low frequencies.

The final aspect of the present invention concerns the mapping of straycurrents themselves. When an attempt is made to determine the positionof an underground pipe using a detector with multiple sensors, theeffect of an interfering adjacent pipe (a second pipe) is to distort thesignals received by the sensors, so that it is not possible to determinefrom the signals from the sensors the location of the pipe beinginvestigated (the first pipe).

Suppose now that a counter-interference is supplied to signals from thesensors, by modifying them as if there was an interfering pipe at a setlocation, and the current in that interfering pipe was varied. If thisprocess is carried out until the outputs of the sensors are modified soas to coincide (or nearly so) at a particular point. Then, the “virtual”interference would have cancelled out the actual interference from thesecond pipe. At first sight, such cancellation would require theposition of the virtual pipe to be set at the same place as the secondpipe, but this turns out not to be the case. The effect of the secondpipe at one location can be cancelled by a virtual pipe at anotherlocation, with a difference current. Thus, it is not necessary that theposition of the virtual pipe is set accurately. Indeed, it could bepresent at some fixed location and sufficiently accurate results wouldnormally be obtained. Of course, if the operator knew approximate thelocation of the second pipe, then greater accuracy could be achieved,but again the position needs only to be known approximately, notexactly, for sufficiently accurate results to be achieved. This use of avirtual interfering pipe to correct the distortions in sensor signalsdue to a real interfering pipe thus represents a seventh aspect of theinvention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail,by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is schematic diagram of a cathodic protection voltage system fora pipe line in which an interrupter according to present invention maybe used;

FIG. 2 shows the interrupter of FIG. 1 in more detail;

FIG. 3 shows the power supply of FIG. 1 in more detail;

FIG. 4 illustrates orthogonal signal patterns that may be used with aseries of interrupters;

FIG. 5 illustrates the synchronisation of two orthogonal signalpatterns;

FIG. 6 shows the location of a pipe using a detector with severalsensors;

FIG. 7 is similar to FIG. 6, but shows the effect of interference due toa second pipe;

FIG. 8 is similar to FIGS. 5 and 6, but shows the effect ofAanti-interference@; and

FIG. 9 shows a power arrangement that may be used with an interrupter ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring first to FIG. 1, a gas pipe 10 is to be protected againstcorrosion by having a cathodic (negative) protection voltage appliedthere too. That voltage is derived from a power supply 11, and rectifiedby a rectifier 12 so as to generate a cathodic voltage on a line 13relative to ground. The line 13 is connected via an interrupter 14 tothe pipe 10. The interrupter 14 comprises a switch 15 connected betweenthe line 13 and the pipe 10, the switching of which is controlled by acontrol unit 16. The control unit 16 is powered from a power supply 17within the interrupter 14, connected between the control unit 16 andground.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the interrupter 14 in more detail. In FIG.2, the switch 15 and the power supply 17 of FIG. 1 are shown as blocks,but all other components belong to the control unit 16. Thus, amicrocontroller 20 is connected to the power supply 17 and to the switch15. It is triggered by the action of a keypad 21 to cause it to operate,deriving data from a memory 22. The microcontroller 20 is also connectedto a GPS device 23 which links via a multiplexor 24 and a suitableinterface 25 to provide an independently synchronised signal at e.g. 1pps to the microcontroller 20. The microcontroller 20 is also connectedto a display unit 26 and to sensors 27 which sense temperature and lightlevels, control the display 26 and other components. A sounder 28 may beprovided to provide a warning of faulty operation of the switch 15.

FIG. 3 shows the power supply 17 in more detail. It comprises a powerunit 30 which is connected to ground via a regulator 31, and is alsoconnected to an independent power source 32 such as provided by abattery.

Suppose now that such interrupters are respectively connected to each ofa plurality of pipes. The microprocessors 20 of each interrupter maythen by programmed to apply a modulation to the cathodic protectionvoltage on the pipe, and so enable the pipe to be distinguished. The GPSunit 23 then acts as an independent synchroniser of the interrupters,since the signals which each provide to the corresponding microprocessorare synchronised, without the interrupters being physicallyinterconnected.

Where multiple interrupters are used in this way, the modulations whicheach apply to the cathodic protection voltage of the respective pipesneeds to be distinguishable.

Preferably, this is done by making the signals a sequence of binarylevels, as represented by the open and closing of the switches. Formultiple interrupters, the bit pattern thus defined by the switching isdesigned so that each pattern is orthogonal to all other patterns.

Orthogonality can be expressed mathematically as: S1(t).S2(t)=0 where S1and S2 are the signal waveforms, represented as functions of time. Theintegral is taken over a period of time equal to the repeat period ofthe waveforms. If the equation holds true then the two signals S1(t) andS2(t) are orthogonal, provided neither signal is trivial, i.e. S1 ²(t) 0and S2 ²(t) 0

FIG. 4 illustrates four orthogonal patterns. It can be noted that theaim of these patterns is to maximise the energy content of each pattern,while maintaining orthogonality. It would be possible to have singlepulse of duration of an appropriate fraction of the cycle, but the totalenergy content of the pulses would then be limited. The technique ofusing orthogonality then means that the energy content can be increasedwhile maintaining distinguishably.

In order for the signals to be orthogonal, they must be operating in aknown phase relationship. In order for that to be possible, when theinterrupters are turning on and off, the interrupters must besynchronised as previously mentioned. In general, it is not sufficientsimply to synchronise the interrupters in the sense of providing themwith an internal clock, and then allowing them to run free. Whilst it ispossible to provide internal clocks with sufficient accuracy for this tobe achieved, such clocks are not practical options because of theircost. However, if cheaper, and therefore less accurate clocks were used,synchronisation would be lost unless there was some external reference.Note it is also undesirable to interconnect the interrupters to achievesynchronisation.

Therefore, in this embodiment of the invention, a time (a pre-set time)is set which is which is known to all the interrupters. Then, wheneveran interrupter is to start operation, it determines how long has passedbetween that pre-set time and the time it is to start, in terms of thenumber of cycles and part cycles of its signal, as if the signal hadbeen operating continuously since the pre-set time. Then, theinterrupter starts operating at which ever point in its cycle is thusdetermined. Thus, whenever an interrupter starts to operate it starts atwhich ever point in its cycle it would have reached if it had beenoperating continuously since the pre-set time.

This operation is illustrated in FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, the modulations oftwo interrupters are illustrated, both of which have a seven secondcycle but one of which is on for 4 s and off for 3 s and the other ofwhich is on for 0.5 s and off for 6.5 s. At a point A, both aresynchronised. They remain synchronised at point D seven seconds later,but at point C the second interrupter is powered down. The firstinterrupter continues to operate. Next, supposes that both interruptershad been operating continuously for 25211 s at point A, and both hadbeen synchronised for all that time, with the zero time then being thepre-set time referred to above.

Suppose now at point D, the second interrupter is to be turned back on.The second interrupter measures the time between point D and the pre-settime and, in the example shown in FIG. 5, it is determined that 111601 shas elapsed. That number is not divisible by seven, nevertheless theinterrupter can determine at which point in its cycle is the start. Itcan determine that, if it had started its cycle at 111594 s after thearbitrary preset time (at point E) it would start in synchronisationwith interrupter 1. However, in fact another 6 s has passed since pointE. Thus, interrupter 2 is to start 6 s into its cycle, so that the onpulse occurs one second later at 111601 s being point F, at which pointthe second interrupter is again synchronised with first interrupter.

Thus, by determining the time from the pre-set time, determining thenumber of cycles and part cycles which have elapsed since then, andstarting the interrupter signal at whichever point in the cycle is thusdetermined, the interrupter is able to re-synchronise itself withinterrupters without having to be linked to those other interrupters.

In order to achieve this it is necessary for the interrupter to be ableto determine how much time has elapsed since the pre-set time, but thiscan be obtained from GPS signals, derived e.g. from the GPS device 23 inFIG. 2, which signals carry time information. In the embodiment in FIG.5, both signals have the same period 7(S) this technique can be appliedto signals with different periods. Consider the case where one signalhas a 7 second period and the other has a 9 second period. In such acase, the signals repeat together every 63 seconds. Nevertheless, ifeither interrupter is turned off, and then restarted, and it calculatesthe point in its cycle which it is to start, relative to the arbitrarypre-set time, then the interrupter which has been turned off and turnedon will operate as if it had never been turned off, and thus will comeback in synchronisation every 63 seconds in the same way as before.

Moreover, the signal need not be restricted necessarily to binarylevels. The method described will work with arbitrary signals.

In the following description of the method of synchronisation thefollowing symbols are used:

n the number of bits in a periodic signal,

T the period of a signal in seconds,

r the bit rate of a signal in bits per second,

i the bit number within a periodic signal in the range 0 to n−1,

t the current one-second epoch as described above.

Since the signal to be transmitted is periodic, it must consist of arepeated sequence of n bits defined byn=rT

Two units will be synchronised correctly if at each instant they are inagreement about the current bit number, i within the signal. This isachieved by computing i at the commencement of each one-second epochusing this formula:i=remainder [rt/n] where the </= signifies integer division.

The use of this formula together with the unique time informationderived from GPS enables this synchronisation to be achieved. Thesignals from the previous example are used to show how this methodsucceeds where the other methods failed.

In many practical situations when locating a pipe, it is found that thecurrent flowing along another underground service in the vicinityinterferes with the signals on the pipe being investigated. In such acase the signals from the plurality of sensors in a detector may be usedto indicate that the current is not flowing on a single service, as thesignals do not follow the field pattern expected from a single conductorcarrying the current. Using a locator indicator in these conditions mayresult in the incorrect location of the pipe as well as an incorrectcurrent flow measurement.

Using the signals measured by many sensors, it is possible to determinethe location of two or more pipes and the current flowing in them thatgive the field strengths that most closely match the signals measured.

The technique consists of two stages. Firstly the location of one of thepipes is determined, usually by isolating the current flowing on it andhence locating it correctly. Then the pipe is returned to beingnon-isolated, thus having the same interfering signal current as is onthe adjacent pipe. The signal strengths at the sensors is then measuredand using the information of the location of one of the pipes thelocation of the other is found along with the current flowing on both.This is done using a mathematical model of the fields generated by thepipes. The fields that would be generated by a pipe at the known pipelocation are removed from the measured signals, and by varying thecurrent on this pipe in the model the best fit to the measured signalsis found. The model is optimised to give a best fit to the fields for asingle additional pipe at an unknown location and having optimised thislocation the currents on both pipes are calculated from the fields fromeach pipe.

Having accurately measured the signals from each of the sensors, theposition of the pipe can be determined. Having done this it is thenpossible to decide whether the signals are correct for there being onepipe or whether there are two pipes in the same vicinity. In the formercase the calculated position will be correct. In the latter the positionwill not be the correct location of either pipe. In this case thelocation of one pipe should be measured either by ensuring that a signalcurrent flows only on one pipe to make an accurate measurement or bysome other means. Having determined the location of one pipe theposition of this can be used to eliminate the field that this pipe wouldgenerate in the more complicated case with the two pipes. In this waythe current on both pipes and the location of the second pipe may bedetermined.

It is not always possible to eliminate the effect of interference of onepipe on another by considering multiple modulation expressed above. Insome situations, it is not possible to modulate the pipes differently.Moreover, in other situations, signals on one pipe couple to anotherpipe, and in that case the two signals have the same modulation (becausethey have common origin) and so cannot be eliminated by the processingdescribed above. Nevertheless, it is still possible to minimise theeffect of an interfering pipe.

FIG. 6 illustrates a detector detecting the location of a pipe in thesituation where there is no interference. The detector 40 has multiplesensors 41, 42, 43, 44 thereon, spaced along the length of the detectorat known intervals, and each detect the magnetic fields due to thesignals on the pipe 45. The sensors 41 to 44 will detect maximum fieldstrength in directions which intersect at the pipe 45, as illustrated byarrows 46 to 49. Thus, in the absence of interference, the position ofthe pipe 45 can be determined accurately.

It should be noted that the sensor described with reference to FIG. 6 isillustrated in more detail in WO98/54601 thus its detailed structure,control, signal processing, etc will not be described in more detailnow.

FIG. 7 illustrates the situation when there is a second pipe 50 carryinga current which generates an magnetic field which interferes with thefield from the first pipe 45 at the sensors 41 to 44. In this case, thedirections of maximum field represented by arrows 46 to 49 do notcoincide at the pipe 45. Indeed, as illustrated in FIG. 7, they do nothave a meaningful coincidence at all. The position of the first pipe 45is thus impossible to determine.

Suppose now that a “virtual” pipe is assumed to exist at point 51 shownin FIG. 8, carrying a current. Pipe 51 can itself be considered togenerate magnetic fields which would interfere with the signals receivedwith the sensors 41 to 44 due to the pipe 45, and by varying the currentin pipe 51 it can generate an Anti interference effect which has theeffect of cancelling the interference due to pipe 50, so that the arrows46 to 49 representing the maximum field strength detected by the sensors41 to 44 then coincide (or substantially coincide) at the pipe 45. Thus,by varying the current in pipe 51 until a best fit is obtained for thearrows 46 to 49, the location of the pipe 45 can be determined withsufficient accuracy for practical purposes.

Of course, pipe 51 will not normally be a real pipe. Instead, thesignals from the sensors 41 to 44 are modified as if there was a pipe atpoint 51, and the virtual current in that virtual pipe varied until thebest fit was obtained. It has been found that the accuracy of thisarrangement does not require the location of the virtual pipe 51 tocoincide with the pipe 50. The interference effect is largely positionindependent. Therefore, it is possible for the user to estimate asuitable position for the pipe 51 or indeed for the detector to use apre-set position. A suitable current value can be found at which thepipe 51 cancels the pipe 50.

FIG. 8 assumes that the pipes 50,51 are on the same side of the firstpipe 45. Whilst reasonable results can be obtained even when they are onopposite sides of the first pipe 45, it may be better to try for a bestfit with the pipe 51 on one side of the first pipe 45, and then torepeat the process with the pipe 51 on the other side of the first pipe45, to see which produces the “better” best fit. Note that in practicalsituations, it is usually possible to say whether the interfering pipeis on one side or other of the pipe 45 to be investigated.

This technique can be used to eliminate the effect of multipleinterfering pipes. Magnetic fields received at the sensors 41 to 44 ofany pair (or more) of pipes is usually directly equivalent to themagnetic field received by a single pipe at some intermediate location.The composite effect created by that single pipe can then be cancelledby providing a virtual pipe equivalent to pipe 51 shown in FIG. 8.

It was previously mentioned, with reference to FIG. 3, the power supply17 into FIG. 1 may comprise of power unit 30 and an independent powersource 32 such as provided by a battery. However, it is also possible toprovide power to the control unit 16 in an other way, as illustrated inFIG. 9. Control unit 16 may still have the power source 32, to provide abackup, but in the arrangement shown in FIG. 9 this is not the mainsource of power. Instead, the controller contains a capacitor 60 (otherparts of the control unit 16 are not shown in FIG. 9) which is connectedbetween a terminal of the cathodic protection voltage supply 61 andground via a resistor 62. The other end of the cathodic protectionvoltage supply 61 is also connected to ground as shown at 63, and thepipe 10 maybe considered also connected to ground via a resistor 64. Itwill be appreciated that the resister 64 is not a separate component,but is created due to the nature of the materials surrounding the pipe10. When the interrupter switch 15 is on, the cathodic protectionvoltage is supplied from the power supply 51 to the pipe 10. However,since the capacitor 60 is also connected to the cathodic protectionvoltage supply 61, the voltage is established across it causes charge tobe stored which with current flowing through the existing 62) and thusthe power represented by that store charge may be used to power thecontrol unit 16 when the interrupter switch 16 needs to be turned off.Then using a solid state switch, such as a power FET, the energy neededto switch the switch 15 is minimised, and thus there will be sufficientpower stored in the capacitor 60 to achieve the effect required.

Hence, it is possible to use the cathodic protection power supply topower the control unit for the interrupter. It can also be appreciatedthat the techniques envisaged in FIG. 9 can be applied to control ofother devices connected to the pipe to which a cathodic protectionvoltage is applied.

1. An interrupter for controlling the negative protection voltageapplied to an underground pipe or cable, the interrupter comprising: aswitch for controlling said protection voltage; means for storing apredetermined fixed prior time; means for storing a predeterminedmodulation cycle, the predetermined modulation cycle having its originat the fixed prior time; timing means for determining the time elapsedbetween said fixed prior time and the current time; means fordetermining the location within said modulation cycle at the currenttime; means for setting a signal to a value corresponding to thedetermined location with said modulation cycle, and subsequentlymodulating said signal according to said modulation cycle; and controlmeans for controlling said switch and modulating said negativeprotection voltage according to said modulated signal.
 2. An interrupteraccording to claim 1, wherein said timing means comprises a GPSreceiver.